A Delicious Little Detective Story

For some reason I find myself blogging more about music and TV than international politics and the environment. Does that make me frivolous? Or merely honest? Ah, well, I won't self-diagnose. I'll leave that to the experts. Enter Dr. Gregory House. BRILLIANTLY played by Hugh Laurie of the piercing blue eyes, and the straight-faced delivery of some of the funniest lines i've heard on TV in the recent past. ('You're going to the Galapagos islands? Why?- 'To visit family. My uncle is a giant turtle.') or try this one, when House is looking in his boss' (Lisa Cuddy, as played by a painfully fit Lisa Edelstein) drawer for the painkillers to which he is addicted, and is caught in the act by his one and only friend, oncologist James Wilson. 'What are you doing here? Where's Cuddy?'- 'In this drawer. It's a rescue mission.'
House is special to me for many reasons. It's the first show I've watched entirely online (not one episode on a regular TV), and also it will always remind me of some great online TV watching sessions with some of the best (and most unexpected) friends I've ever made. But over and above these (boring) personal reasons, House is one of the most intelligent dramas to hit the screen in living memory. Its protagonist is a mean, cantankerous, evil, withdrawn medical genius who gets his kicks from playing God with his patients' lives. Hugh Laurie takes the character from the two-dimensional and transforms him into someone real, live, and breathing, down to the pain lines on his face and makes him someone we all love to hate. And in the process, makes a fairly formulaic medical drama into some REALLY entertaining TV. Without him, the show is nothing. (The supporting cast is very efficient, and provides an excellent background blah blah, but it's House we all tune in to watch).
The character is based on Sherlock Holmes (something I am proud to say I noticed even before someone pointed it out). Holmes-homes-house-House, get it? Watson-Wilson, there's even a shadowy character called Moriarty, who is House's alter-ego in much the same way the original is Holmes'. He lives in 221 b, and is addicted to vicodin, a painkiller (remember Holmes and the cocaine?). He also plays the piano (Holmes preferred the violin) and makes a living by following tiny clues to their logical conclusion, his speciality being the ability to see things that others miss, and make sense of seemigly inconsequential details. (sound familiar yet?)
And for my last reason for loving House: the soundtrack. It introduced me to a song I cannot get enough of at the moment: The Who's Baba O'Riley is the greatest track I have heard for a looong time, from the synthesised opening chords to the violin solo at the end. Here's what Wikipedia (which is a whole different story altogether) has to say about the song:
"Baba O'Riley" was originally written by Pete Townshend for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was to be the follow-up to The Who's 1969 opera, Tommy. Townshend derived the song from a nine minute ARP synthesizer demo, which the band reconstructed. "Baba O'Riley" was going to be used in the Lifehouse project as a song sung by Ray, the Scottish farmer at the beginning of the album as he gathers his wife Sally and his two children to begin their exodus to London. When Lifehouse was scrapped, many of the songs were released on The Who's 1971 album Who's Next. Baba O'Riley became the first track on Who's Next. The song was released as a single in several European countries, but in the US and the UK was only released as part of the album.

Drummer Keith Moon had the idea of inserting a violin solo at the coda of the song, during which the style of the song shifts from crashing rock to a klezmer-style beat. Dave Arbus, of East of Eden, plays violin. In concert, lead singer Roger Daltrey replaces the violin solo with a harmonica solo. The Who have produced a live version of the song with a violin, provided live by Nigel Kennedy, during their November 27th, 2000 concert the Royal Albert Hall.

And finally, as a special treat, here's a video of House, set to Baba O'Riley. How perfect is that?

And before you watch the video, one final joke. Holmes and Watson are out camping. Some hours into the night, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."
"I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" replies Watson.
"And what do you deduce from that?"
Watson ponders for a minute.
"Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?"
Holmes is silent for a moment. "Watson, you idiot!" he says. "Someone has stolen our tent!"

Chuckle. Enjoy the video. And hoot if you agree.

Of Grace Kelly and Ice Cream Sodas

Guess what I'm humming these days? A super-successful single by a Lebanese-born, London-based, curly-haired, Freddy-Mercury-and-Queen-inspired, sexually amorphic singer with dyslexia, training in opera, and a high note that could fracture glass. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mika. His real name is Mica Penniman, which he changed for (justified) fears of the massacre that would ensue if the general public were allowed to pronounce it. His first single? 'Relax, Take it Easy.' Followed by 'Grace Kelly'. In January 2007, he came top of BBC News's Sound of 2007 poll. In March 2007 he appeared on the Jay Leno. In April, the Guardian decided they were intrigued by him, and that is how we met.
Mika is unadulterated pop. He is the essence of Freddy, Queen, Bowie, the Scissor Sisters, and various other dramatic pop icons distilled into one dimunitive mop-haired singer wearing tight jeans. (and this probably explains why all his songs sound vaguely like something you've heard before.)His songs are this close to being over-the-top, and generally parodies of themselves, but somehow he pulls back at the last minute. Maybe its because they're not cynical, his songs. They may belong to a genre (intelligent pop) that has been given over to cynicism and self-parody, but somehow he brings freshness to a brand of songs that never had it to begin with.
Take 'Grace Kelly'. This is a song about identity or the lack of it. The melody is apparently based on 'The Barber of Seville' (I don't know, haven't heard it yet, though I will soon). The song is about people who reinvent themselves to be popular (sound familiar yet) and I for one, found it a deeply distubing little molotov cocktail wrapped up in an ice-cream soda. 'I could be wholesome/I could be loathsome/I guess I'm a little bit shy/Why dont you like me?Why dont you like me without making me try?' Here's what the Guardian said about this little jewel of a song. 'The song asks two basic questions - who am I, and what do I have to do to be successful? It could be a knowing song about ambition and the music industry, it could be a song of straightforward desperation, it could be both. Like most things about Mika, it means what you want it to mean.'
Still here? Watch the video. And welcome to the world of earworm. Oh, and don't forget to let me know what you think.